Vending-machine.



PATENTED OUT. 11. 1904.

'0. A. DISBROW.

VENDING MACHINE.

APPLIOATION FILED DEO.3, 1903.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1- NO MODEL.

V1 2 n r O H A PATBNTED OCT. 11, 1904.

0. A. DISBROW.

VENDING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILE-D DEQS, 1903v N0 MODEL,

TS-SHEET 2. 1

Inventor Attorney PATBNTED OCT. 11, 19%.

U A. DISBROW.

VENDING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED 1330.3, 1903.

3 SHEETS--SHEET 3.

N0 MODEL.

I fihvw Attorney die 17/ UNITED STATES Patented October 11, 1 904.

PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES ANDRUS DISBROW, OF HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

VENDING-MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 772,226, dated October 11, 1904:. Application filed December 3, 1903. Serial No. 183,598. (No model.)

I To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, CHARLES ANDRUS DIS- BROW, a citizen of the United States, residing at Harrisburg, in the county of Dauphin and- State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Vending- Machines; and I do declare the following to be a full. clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to vending-machines, and more particularly to improvements in the Doremus coin-controlled vending-machine for cigars or other merchandise.

In the operation of the Doremus machine, as set forth in Letters Patent No. 684,765. dated October 15, 1901, and No. 686,210, dated November 5, 1901, the cigar-delivery roll when released by the deposit of a coin can only be oscillated once-that is, it can only be moved inwardly to the limit of its inward movementto permit its pocket to receive a cigar and then reversed to its normal position to deliver the cigar. qucntly happens upon the inward and outward movement of the delivery-roll that a cigar becomes only partially deposited in the pocket of the roll and as a result the cigar is either cut in half or badly mutilated by being caught between the edge of the pocket and the bottom edge of the front wall of the casing, or where merchandise, such as chewing-gum, is vended by the machine should an article or package become pinched between the edge of the pocket and the bottom edge of the front wall of the casing the machine becomes locked and inoperative, owing to the fact that the delivery-roll cannot be oscillated to release the merchandise. Since the delivery-roll cannot be moved backwardly after it has once started on its outward delivery movement, the cigar has no chance to become properly lodged in the pocket if once it is only partially in the pocket and pinched under the front wall of the casing. One of the objects of my invention is to overcome this objection, and I do so by permitting the delivery-roll to be oscillated more or less on its return or delivery movement to permit a It frecigar to become properly deposited in the pocket before the latter is moved under the bottom edge of the front wall of the casing. Another object of my invention is to overcome the liability of the coins buckling in the chutesand passages and clogging the machine. A further object of my invention is to improve and simplify the construction and operation of machines of this character, and thereby render them more efiicient and durable in use and less expensive to manufacture.

With these and other objects in view the invention consists of certain novel features of construction, combination, and arrangement of parts, as will be more fully described, and particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a machine embodying my improvements. Fig. 2 is a vertical front to rear sectional view through the same. Fig. 3 is a rear elevation of the machine, the back wall being removed to show the interior mechanism. Fig. 4-is adetail section taken on the line L i of Fig. 2. Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the interior mechanism of the machine, the back wall and a portionof one of the side walls being removed to more clearly show the parts. Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a modified form of delivery-roll. Fig. 7 is a perspective view of the pivoted spring-actuated pawl which controls the retrograde movement of the delivery-roll. Fig. 8 is a perspective view of the coin-delivery chute removed from the delivery-roll. Fig. 9 is a detail vertical sectional viewtaken on the line 9 9 of Fig. i. Fig. 10 is a detail end elevation of the'delivery-roll, showing the dog 30. Y

' Referring to the drawings by numeral, 1 denotes a casing comprising a lower body portion 2, designed to contain the'operating mechanism, and an upper inclined receptacle 3, adapted to receive a box of cigars or an original package from which the cigars are vended; The casing is preferably made of light castings and in its construction comprises two side walls 4 and 5, which are detachably secured to a base 6 and are held together adjacent to their rear edges by a tie-rod 7, the ends of which are screw-threaded in opposite directions and screwed into similarly screwthreaded sockets 8, formed on the inner faces of said sides 4 and 5. By means of this tierod the side walls of the casing are united in a simple and inexpensive manner, and they may be adjusted toward or from each other to permit the operating parts of the machine to Work nicely and also to compensate for wear. A jam-nut 9 is provided upon one of the threaded ends of the tie-rod to engage one of the sockets 8, and thus hold the tie-rod against casual movement. The upper portions of the side Walls 4 5, the front wall, and the top or cover of the casing, constituting the receptacle 3, are formed with openings which are closed by panes of glass 10 to permit the contents of the receptacle to be in- .spected.

vopen-end hollow cylinder 14 and a circular head 15, secured upon one end of said cylinder to close the same. Said head is formed at its center with an inwardly-projecting tubular hub 16, which is secured by a set-screw upon a shaft 17 having its ends mounted in bearing recesses 0r sockets formed on the inner faces of the side walls 4 and 5 of the casing. By means of this shaft 17 the delivery-roll is mounted to oscillate, and it is of such size and so disposed that it completely fills an opening 18 in the front of the casing below the receptacle 3. In the periphery of the deliveryroll is a longitudinally-disposed deliverypocket 19, which when the delivery-roll is oscillated within the casing is brought beneath the stock of cigars in the receptacle 3 in order to receive one of them, and when the movement of the delivery-roll is reversed to Withdraw the pocket from the casing it will deliver the cigar beneath a front cross-piece 20. The delivery-roll is provided with a handle 21 for operating it.

The oscillating tilting shelf 13, which cooperates with the delivery-roll, is preferably formed from a single piece of sheet metal and is hinged or pivotally mounted at its rear edge by forming downturned apertured ears 22 upon each of its side edges and engaging the apertures of said ears with bearing studs or trunnions 23, cast upon the inner side walls of the casing. The front edge of said shelf is formed with a series of broad fingers 24, which rest upon the periphery of the delivery-roll, and when the latter is oscillated Within the casing they enter narrow longitudinally-disposed slots 25 in the periphery of the deliveryroll. The oscillation of the delivery-roll will thus oscillate the shelf, and its swinging or tilting movement will raise and lower the whole mass of cigars in the receptacle 3, thereby preventing them from packing or arching, as will be readily understood. By forming the fingers 24 very broad, as shown, all liability of the cigars being caught or pinched between the front edge of the shelf and the delivery-roll is effectually overcome.

. As previously stated, the stock or mass of cigars in the receptacle rests upon the shelf 13 and the periphery of the delivery-roll, and the pocket in the delivery-roll moves under the front cross-piece 20 when the delivery-roll is oscillated to deliver a cigar. The bottom edge of the pane of glass in the front of the receptacle is supported by said cross-piece, and it frequently happens that the wrappers of the cigars will catch upon the projecting edge of the glass and become mutilated. To avoid this, I provide a longitudinally-disposed concave guard-plate 27, the lower edge of which fits the periphery of the delivery-roll nicely, and its upper edge is sufficiently above the edge of the glass to overcome the abovementioned objection.

The delivery-roll 12 is locked against movement by a pivoted spring-actuated dog 30, which is only released by the deposit of a coin or check of proper size. Said dog has one of its ends pivoted upon a pin 31 between ears 32, bent up from a plate 33, which is secured by a screw 34 upon the side wall 4 The opposite end 35 of said dog is guided in its swinging movement by lugs 36, cast upon the side wall 4, and is held by a coil-spring 35 in engagement with a recess 37 formed in the open end of the cylindrical portion 14 of the delivery-roll. Said coil-spring is confined between a stud formed on one face of the dog and a recess or socket formed in the side wall 4, sufficient space being left between the dog and the wall 4 to permit the dog to be moved out of engagement with said recess 37. The end of the cylinder 14 adjacent to the recess 37 is cut away, as at 38, to form a stopshoulder 39, which will engage the dog 30 when the delivery-roll is oscillated to limit the movement of the latter in one direction.

In order to release the dog from locking engagement with the delivery-roll, an inclined or beveled shoulder 40 is formed upon its inner 'face and adapted to project through an opening in one of the side walls of a coin-delivering chute 41 and into the path of movement of a deposited coin. Said chute 41 is curved,

.as shown in Fig. 2, and has its upper end adapted to receive the coins deposited in a receiving-chute 42 and its lower end adapted to deliver the coins to an exposed channel 43, through which they are forced before dropping into a money drawer or receptacle. The receiving-chute 42 consists of a transverselyoblong rectangular four-sided shell, which is secured transversely in the delivery-roll 12 by having the shaft 17 pass through apertured ears formed upon said shell. One end of the chute 42 projects through the periphery of the de- ITO liver -roll and when the latter is in its normal position, as seen in Fig. 1, said end of the chute registers with a com-receiving slot 44, formed in the front cross-piece 20. The opposite end of the chute 42 projects through an opening 45, formed in the periphery of the deliveryroll, and its upper wall is formed with a projection or tailpiece 46, which is adapted to travel in a slot 47, formed in the upper wall of the curved delivery-chute 41, when the deliveryroll is operated. The upper wall of the chute 42 adjacent tothe tailpiece is formed with a large opening 48, and in said chute adjacent to its end is a vibratory plate 49, which comprises a body portion 50, formed at each side with lugsor trunnions 51, a bent upper'tongue 52, and a lower tongue 53. The side walls of the chute 42 are formed with circular apertures 54, with which slots communicate to permit the trunnions 51 on the plate to be readily inserted in the bearing-openings 54, as will be seen upon reference to Fig. 8 of the drawings. The tongue 52 is limited in itsupward-swinging movement by a stop-plate 56, secured by a screw 57 upon the top wall of the chute 42, and it will be noticed that said stop in limiting the movement of the plate 49 will also prevent the same from being casually displaced fromits pivotal bearings. The lower tongue 53 swings beneath the tailpiece 46 and is adapted to guide a coin passing down the chute 42 into the mouth of the chute 41. A coin in passing down the chute 42 strikes the under side of the tongue 53, which will be thereby elevated to permit the coin to pass under it and fall into the mouth of the chute- 41. When the tongue 53 is thus elevated by the passage of a coin under ,it, the tongue 52 will be forced downwardly into an opening 58, formed in the bottom of the chute 42. When in this position, the tongue 52 will defiect any coins passing down the chute '42 upwardly out of the opening 48 to prevent the machine from becoming clogged, as will be readily understood. The coin after passing from the receiving-chute 42 into the mouth of the delivering-chute 41 will engage the shoulder 40 upon the locking-dog 30 and be thereby stopped. By moving the handle 21 of the delivery-roll upwardly to oscillate-the latter inwardly the tongue 53 and tailpiece 46 will engage the edge of the coin and move the same suificient to force the dog 30 out of engagement with the recess 37 to release the delivery-roll. The oscillation of the latter may then be continued until the shoulder 39 engages the dog 30, at which time thepocket in the delivery-roll will be beneath the stock of cigarsin the receptacle. The'continued oscillation of the delivery-roll inwardly causes the tailpiece to travel in the slot 47 in the chute 41 and force the coin through said chute into the coin-display channel 43. After the delivery-roll has been moved inwardly to its limit it may then be swung inthereversedirection to deliver the cigar, and when it has reached its normal position the locking-dog 30 will spring into the recess 37 in the delivery-roll to lock the same against movement until another coin has been deposited.

In order to prevent the partial oscillation of the delivery-roll back and forth to deliver cigars without depositing coins in the machine and at the same time to permit the roll to be oscillated suificiently to enable a cigar to become properly lodged in the pocket of the roll,

a pawl-and-ratehet device is employed. A

mediate its ends on a pivot 64, screwed into the sidewall 3 of the casing, is a pawl 65, the nose 66 on one end of which coacts with the complete travel in either direction. Said pawl has secured to its opposite end one end of a coil-spring 67, the other end of which is attached to a pin or stud 68 upon the side wall 3. The tendency of the spring is to hold the pawl radially with respect to the delivery-roll; but this is only possible when one of the recesses 61 is in line with the pawl, as seen in Fig.5. At all other times the pawl is disposed angularly or tangentially with respect to the delivery-roll and its ratchet. Upon the initial inward movement of the deliveryroll said pawl will be swung against the tension of said spring to an angular or tangential position with respect to the delivery-roll and its ratchet and will engage the ratchet to prevent retrograde movement of the roll until the latter, reaches the limit of its inward movement, whereupon the pawl will pass into the recess 61 at the opposite end of the ratchet and the spring 67 will turn the pawl to a radial position with respect to the roll in order that when the direction of the movement of the rollis reversed the pawl will be again teeth of said ratchet 60 to prevent retrograde motion of delivery-roll until it has made a 'IIS swung against the tension of the spring to an angular or tangential position with respect to to the roll and its ratchet; but the latter tangential position of the pawl will be reverse to its former tangential position in order to accommodate it to the reverse movement of the roll. In order to permit'the roll to be oscillated to a limited extent when the pocket is beneath the cigars in the receptacle, and thus permit one of them to become properly lodged in the pocket, I provide the nose or end of the pawl with a projection or lug 70, which 00- acts with the portion 63 of the roll to hold the pawl out of engagement with a portion of the ratchet. The lug 7 O is triangular in shape and is so disposed on one face of the nose of the pawl that it will engage the portion 63 only upon the return movement of the roll. \Vhile the pawl is thus held away from the ratchet, the roll may be oscillated to cause one of the cigars to become properly disposed in the pocket to permit it to be moved under the front cross-piece 20 without mutilation; but owing to the length of thepawl-releasing portion 63 the projection on the pawl will slip off of the same and permit the pawl to engage the ratchet as soon as the pocket has begun to pass out from under the cross-piece 20. By thus releasing the pawl it is permitted to perform its proper functionnamely, to prevent the oscillation of the roll to such an extent that more than one cigar may be delivered upon the deposit of a single coin. This is an important feature of my invention, and it may be accomplished by other means than the one just described. Instead of forming the delivery-roll in two parts, as previously described, the cylindrical portion 14: and the end portion 15 may be cast integrally, as shown in Fig. 6. In this case the ratchet 60 is formed in the same manner, and the pawlreleasing portion 63 (indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 6) may be either cast integrally upon the inner face of the end portion 15 or it may be made separate and secured to said inner face of the end portion by screws 71, as shown in Fig. 6.

The coin-channel 43 is provided to permit a plurality of coins, including the last one introduced into the machine, to be immediately visible to a bystander or the custodian, so that any fraud practiced upon the machine may be detected. This channel 43 is straight and is disposed in the front portion of the top of the machine, as clearly shown in Fig. 1. It consists of a depression 7 2,substantially rectangular in cross-section, formed in a top plate 73. which is covered by a glass plate 74:. The sides of the depression 7 2 and also its bottom are provided with long fiat longitudinally-disposed springs 75, which hold the coins in perfect alinement and prevent buckling or wedging notwithstanding the irregularities in the size and thickness of the coins. glass plate or cover 74 is a metal plate 76, formed with a slot 77 to expose the coins in the depression 7 2. A card contains the direct-ions for operating the machine, or any desired advertising matter may be placed upon the bottom plate 73 to one side of the depression beneath the glass cover or plate 7 4. The coins, as previously stated, are fed from the chute 41 edgewise into the channel 4:3 or depression 7 2. Each coin as it is forced into the depression 72 engages the coin ahead of it and forces it forwardly until the foremost coin drops through an opening 78 in the bottom of the depression 72 into the interior of the machine or into a suitable money-drawer 7 9. In

Above the the rear portion of the depression 7 2 is an opening 80 of slightly less width or diameter than the diameter of a nickel or a coin of other denomination which the machine is constructed to receive. This opening 80 is to permit such coins, checks, blanks, &c., that are of insufficient diameter to operate the dog 30 to drop through the same into achute 81, which conducts them into the money-drawer 79, thus preventing them from passing through the channel 43 and possibly wedging the other coins and clogging the passage.

While I have shown and described my invention as applied to a machine for vending cigars, I do not Wish to be understood as limiting myself to this application, since it may be embodied in machines for vending various other merchandise.

From the foregoing description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, it is thought that the construction and operation of the invention will be readily understood, and a further description is therefore deemed unnecessary.

Various changes in the form, proportion, and the minor details of construction may/be resorted to without departing from the principle or sacrificing any of the advantages of this invention.

Having thus described my invention, What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a vending-machine, the combination of a suitable casing having a receptacle adapted to receive the articles to be vended, a movable delivery element having a pocket adapted to be moved into said article-receptacle, means to permit such movement of the delivery element, and means, independent of the lastmentioned means, to permit said delivery element to be freely oscillated while said pocket is in said receptacle, to cause one of the articles in said receptacle to become properly lodged in said pocket, substantially as described.

2. In a vending-machine, the combination of a suitable casing having an article-receptacle, an oscillatory delivery element having a pocket adapted to be moved into and out of said article-receptacle by the oscillation of said delivery element, means for preventing the retrograde movement of said delivery element until it has made a complete travel in either direction, and means for preventing the operation of said retrograde-preventing means while said pocket is within said articlerecep tacle, substantially as described.

3. In a vending-machine, the combination of a suitable casing having an article-receptacle, an oscillatory delivery element having a pocket adapted to be moved into and out of said article-receptacle by the oscillation of said delivery element, means for preventing the backward movement of said delivery element until it has made a complete inward travel, and means for permitting said delivery element to be freely oscillated on its outward I travel while said pocket is within said articlereceptacle, substantially as described.

4:. In a vending-machine, the combination of a suitable casing having an article-receptacle, an oscillatory delivery element having a pocket adapted to be moved into and out of said article-receptacle by the oscillation of said delivery element, a pawl-and-ratchet mechanism i'or preventing retrograde movement of said delivery element until it has made a complete travel, and means to temporarily disconnect said pawl-and-ratchet mechanism, substantially as described.

5. In a vending-machine, the combination of a suitable casing, a delivery-roll, a ratchet carried by said delivery-roll, a spring-actuated pawl adapted to coact with said ratchet to prevent retrograde movement of said deliveryroll until it has made a complete travel, and means carried by said delivery-roll for temporarily holding said pawl away from said ratchet, substantially as described.

6. In a vending-machine, the combination of a suitable casing, a delivery-roll, a ratchet upon said delivery-roll,a spring-actuated pawl adapted to coact with said ratchet and having a projection, and a pawl-releasing member carried by said delivery-roll and adapted to coact with said projection upon said pawl to hold the latter away from said ratchet, substantially as described.

7 In avending-machine, a casing compris-- ing a base, adjustable side walls mounted upon said base and formed with reversely screwthreaded sockets, a tie-rod having-reverselyscrew-threaded ends to engage said sockets, a jam-nut upon said tie-rod, a movable delivery element mounted for operation between the side walls, and a device carried by one of said adjustable side walls to lock said delivery element, substantially as described.

- 8. In a vending-machine, a casing comprising a base, adjustable side walls mounted upon said base, means for adjusting said side walls, a movable delivery element mounted for operation between the side walls, and a device carried by one of said adjustable side walls to lock said delivery element, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presenceof two subscribing witnesses.

CHARLES ANDRUS DISBROVV.

Witnesses:

'JosEPH VVEATHERBY, J r.,

JAMES F. NAYLOR. 

